Meriwether Milling
New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas
Marker Inscription
IN 1847, WILLIAM HUNTER MERIWETHER, A NATIVE VIRGINIAN AND PLANTATION OWNER, PURCHASED 480 ACRES OF LAND IN THE COMAL SPRINGS AREA FROM MARIA ANTONIO DE VERAMENDI GARZA AND HER HUSBAND, RAFAEL C. GARZA, AND 200 ACRES FROM THE GERMAN EMIGRATION AND RAILROAD COMPANY FOR THE PURPOSE OF DEVELOPING A MILLING INDUSTRY. IN 1847, HE DAMMED THE GEYSER SPRINGS, LOCALLY CALLED LAS FONTANAS, AND USED SLAVE LABOR TO DIG A MILL RACE CANAL FROM THE COMAL SPRINGS TO THE COMAL CREEK. THIS CREATED WATER PRESSURE TO RUN A GRIST MILL, COTTON GIN AND SAWMILL. THE ONLY DOMESTIC STRUCTURE THAT REMAINS ON THE ORIGINAL PROPERTY IS THE SMALL MERIWETHER MILL HOUSE, ACROSS FROM THE MILL POND. IN 1859, MERIWETHER AND HIS WIFE LEFT NEW BRAUNFELS, SELLING THEIR HOLDINGS IN THE COMAL SPRINGS TRACT TO JOSEPH LANDA. THE PURCHASE INCLUDED THE EXISTING BUSINESSES AND WATER RIGHTS. LANDA AND HIS SON, HARRY, EXPANDED THE MILLING OPERATION TO INCLUDE A FLOUR MILL, COTTONSEED OIL COMPLEX, ICE PLANT AND HYDROELECTRIC PLANT. THE LANDA INDUSTRIES CONTINUED TO OPERATE UNTIL THE FAMILY BEGAN TO LIQUIDATE THEIR ASSETS IN THE MID 1920s. IN 1936, AFTER BEING BOUGHT BY THE CITY, MUCH OF THE ORIGINAL MERIWETHER PROPERTY BECAME THE BEAUTIFUL RECREATION AREA KNOWN AS LANDA PARK. THE CANAL HAS PROVIDED HYDROLOGICAL AND HYDROELECTRIC POWER FOR THE EARLY MILL OPERATIONS AS WELL AS ELECTRICAL POWER GENERATING PLANTS. MERIWETHER WAS THE FIRST ENTREPRENEUR TO DEVELOP THE SPRINGS, OPENING UP THE AREA FOR INDUSTRY. HIS WORK COINCIDED WITH THE RAPID, PERMANENT DEVELOPMENT OF NEW BRAUNFELS, EVIDENT IN THE FACT THAT IT BECAME THE FOURTH LARGEST CITY IN TEXAS IN 1850, JUST FIVE YEARS AFTER ITS ESTABLISHMENT. (2012)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1847 Virginia planter William Hunter Meriwether bought hundreds of acres around the Comal Springs, dammed the geyser springs locally called Las Fontanas, and used enslaved labor to dig a mill race that powered a grist mill, cotton gin, and sawmill. He sold the works to Joseph Landa in 1859, whose family expanded them into flour, cottonseed oil, ice, and hydroelectric enterprises. Much of the original tract later became the city's Landa Park.
Why it matters
It marks the industrial spark that helped New Braunfels grow explosively in its first years — and a reminder that slavery underwrote enterprise even in a heavily German region.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When William Hunter Meriwether arrived at the Comal Springs in 1847, he came to one of the most powerful natural water sources in Texas — a place of geyser-like springs the locals called Las Fontanas. Water like that was industrial gold in the mid-nineteenth century, when flowing water, not steam or electricity, turned the wheels of a mill.
This was the frontier edge of a young state. Texas had joined the Union only in 1845, and New Braunfels itself was brand new. The land Meriwether assembled came from a Tejano family, the Garzas, and from the German colonization company that had planted the town — a layering of Spanish-Mexican, German, and Anglo-American claims that was typical of Texas in these years.
And it was the antebellum South. Meriwether was a Virginia planter, and he brought the plantation economy's central institution with him: he used enslaved laborers to dig the mill race that made the whole enterprise possible. The prosperity of the springs was built, from the first shovelful, on forced labor.
People & events
Meriwether's ambition was to make water do work. In 1847 he dammed the springs and had a mill race canal dug from the Comal Springs to Comal Creek, creating the water pressure to drive a grist mill, a cotton gin, and a sawmill all at once — a small industrial complex on the Texas frontier. That canal, cut by enslaved people, would go on to power mills and generating plants for generations. A small dwelling, the Meriwether mill house, still remains across from the mill pond as the last domestic structure from his tenure.
In 1859 Meriwether and his wife left New Braunfels, selling the whole Comal Springs tract — businesses, water rights, and all — to Joseph Landa. It was Landa and his son Harry who turned a frontier mill into an industrial dynasty, adding a flour mill, a cottonseed oil complex, an ice plant, and a hydroelectric plant. The Landa industries ran until the family began liquidating their holdings in the mid-1920s.
The final chapter turned the works into something everyone could enjoy. In 1936, after the city bought much of the original Meriwether property, the land became Landa Park — a beautiful recreation area where an industrial engine of the nineteenth century became a green space for the twentieth and beyond.
Its place in the American story
This site captures the industrial spark of a boomtown. Meriwether was the first entrepreneur to harness the springs, and his mills coincided with an astonishing growth spurt: New Braunfels became the fourth-largest city in Texas by 1850, just five years after its founding. Water power and enterprise, together, could build a city almost overnight.
It also holds a truth the nation has often preferred to soften. Even in a region famous for its German immigrants — many of whom opposed slavery — the foundational infrastructure here was carved out by enslaved hands. Slavery underwrote American enterprise far beyond the classic plantation South, reaching into mills, canals, and the machinery of industry itself.
The long arc from grist mill to hydroelectric plant to public park is a distinctly American progression, too: raw natural power first bent to private industry, then to broad electrification, and finally preserved for the public good. One canal quietly powered all three eras.
If you visit
The great draw today is the setting itself — the spring-fed waters that first drew Meriwether are the same ones that make this a place of shade, current, and cool relief. Look for the mill pond and, across from it, the small surviving mill house, the last domestic building from the original enterprise and an easy detail to walk right past if you don't know to seek it.
As you enjoy the park, trace the canal in your mind's eye. What now reads as gentle landscape was once an industrial waterway, deliberately engineered to drive grinding stones and saw blades. The beauty and the labor history occupy the very same ground.
Let the visit hold both feelings at once. This is a lovely place to spend an afternoon on a Hill Country road trip — and it's also a place to remember, honestly, that the canal making all of it possible was dug by people who had no choice in the matter. The best kind of historic site invites you to enjoy it and reckon with it in the same breath.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · William Hunter Meriwether
- · Joseph Landa
Themes & tags
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